The Exterminator
by Loki's Symphony
Summary: Ten/Rose. The Doctor and Rose find themselves in 1980's London after a mid-flight collision with an impossible entity; another time-traveller. However, their leaving plans are cut short by a terrifying new foe, threatening Rose's very existence!
1. Chapter 1

**For your reading pleasure: another historical Tenth Doctor adventure courtesy of your humble narrator, Loki. All non-original characters are the property of the BBC, etc, etc. Gallifrey Rises!**

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"…Anyway, the whole thing got blown completely out of proportion and before you know it, I'm standing before the Sacred Stone of Gassifar with a Kalcitronian dissolution rifle pressed into my back, about to be married to one of the smaller of Raxacoricofallapatorius' moons!"

Rose sat with her knees tucked under her chin, listening intently to every word the Doctor said. "How'd you get out of that?" She asked eagerly.

"Managed to convince them I was the reincarnation of their prophet Fallafafaffalaf," the Doctor replied, stretching his legs out and putting his hand behind his head. "They carried me back to the TARDIS themselves; even gave me a couple of Sirian meta-chickens to keep me company. Then it was just a matter of reversing the polarity of the crystal matrix-" the Doctor leaned back in his office chair and punched a few buttons on the command console, eliciting a whining squeak from one of the pipes above, "-and off I popped."

"Wow," Rose mumbled after a long pause. "When was all this again?"

"Ooh, ages ago," the Doctor replied flippantly, swivelling on his chair. The quiet sounds of the TARDIS in flight hummed in the background of their silence.

"I can't believe you never told me the bit about the Slitheen and the game of strip Pelosian Mega-Poker before," Rose chuckled, folding her legs beneath her.

The Doctor blinked. "I don't like to talk about that."

Rose stared hard at the Doctor as he twiddled his thumbs absent-mindedly. "Were you making that up?" She asked.

"Every single word," the Doctor replied as he gazed distractedly around the TARDIS' inner sanctum. Rose leapt to her feet.

"But you've been telling that story for an hour!" She screeched, crossing her arms over her chest. "You mean you made the _whole thing_ up?"

"Yup," the Doctor replied, standing and crossing to the command console to poke at buttons half-heartedly.

Rose stormed after him, the metal grille clattering beneath her feet. "So what's the point of the last hour been, then?" She demanded, leaning over the side of the console threateningly.

"Just to see when you'd catch on," the Doctor replied with a grin. "I win!"

Rose frowned and made to reply, but the Doctor's infectious smile caused her to burst into a snort of laughter. "I could go off you, you know," she warned him.

The Doctor pumped a handle on the console twice before looking back up at Rose. "Nah."

Suddenly the whole room shook as if the TARDIS had hit a wall. The soft yellow lights turned a dark, harsh red as steam and smoke escaped from vents all over the place. The shaking intensified as the sound of grinding metal pervaded the air, licks of flame spurting from broken pipes beneath the ramp.

"Rose!" The Doctor cried as he clung to the console. "Are you okay?"

Rose got up from the floor, coughing. "I'm okay," she croaked through the thickening smoke. "What happened?"

"Collision!" The Doctor shouted back to her as he flicked switches and turned wheels madly. "According to the readouts we've crossed time streams with another traveller!" He explained, hardly believing his own words.

"Another traveller?" Rose repeated. "I thought we were the only-"

"We are!" The Doctor cut Rose off, running haphazardly around the circular console as the whole TARDIS shook. "We must have fallen into a time loop, come back around and smashed into the back of our past selves; it just doesn't make sense otherwise, it's literally impossible!"

Rose slipped onto the ground and hung desperately to a rail as explosions rocked the TARDIS. "What do we do?" she cried out.

"Hold onto something- oh good, you are," The Doctor replied, "Crash landing! Here we go!"

***

The sounds of drunken revelry and pop music spilled out onto the street as the young girl tottered out of the doorway, bumping into a barrel-chested bouncer and slowly regaining her balance. Her white stilettos clicked noisily on the pavement as she straightened out her short, figure-hugging dress and lit a cigarette shakily. Two similarly-dressed women stumbled out of the pub amid braying laughter.

"Oi, Jacks," one of them called out, "where you going?"

"Home!" the young woman replied, breathing out a plume of white smoke, coughing slightly. "I don't wanna have to see his bloody face no more!"

"Oh, come on, Jacks," the woman replied, "we're going to that new club on Flint Street after!"

"I don't care!" the girl shrieked, throwing her cigarette to the ground and stumbling off amid a clicking of heels. A long-nailed hand streaked running mascara across her face as she sniffed loudly.

An explosion from behind her threw her to the ground, grazing her knees on the hard paving stones. Shattering glass and shrieks rent the air as the blast seemed to deafen her to everything but her own heartbeat. A rush of dust and rubble blew over her, filling her nostrils with debris as she choked and coughed, trying to stand up. The bouncer staggered upright, bleeding heavily from his head.

Confused voices cried out over the destruction, feet pounding on pavement as the pub began to empty. Slowly the young woman began to hear snippets of human tongues, repeating words like "bomb" and "IRA". As the dust began to settle she saw the entire front of the restaurant across the road torn away, its clients lying around, broken and bleeding as a huge hole in the ground gaped before them. Rubbing her eyes she watched a skinny man climb out of the hole and start looking around him in horror, holding his head in his hands.

"What…what happened," she asked dumbly, pushing blonde extensions out of her eyes. The man turned and his face dropped in shock.

"Rose, I thought I told you to stay inside!" He yelled, grabbing her arm. "It's safer in the TARDIS than it is out here and-how did you get that change of clothes?" He asked, confused.

"Let go of me!" The girl screamed, tugging her arm away. "My name isn't Rose! Get off of me!"

"What? Rose, stop messing about!" The man spat at her angrily. "Get back in the TARDIS! Now!"

The man went sprawling from a hefty blow from a slender hand. "My name," she repeated, "is not, Rose!" She stood defiant. "My name is Jackie!"

The man pulled himself up, swaying slightly as he regarded her with total disbelief. "…No," he said at length, shaking his head furiously. "No way!"

"Want another one, do you?" the girl threatened, raising her hand again.

"…No way!" He repeated, his eyes wandering over her. She felt uncomfortable as his gaze went from her eyes to her lips, backing away shyly as they slipped down her body before rapidly winching back up from the tops of her legs, shaking his head rapidly.

"…No _way!_"


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor stared at the young woman, her face so similar to Rose's. "…No way," he muttered to himself dumbly.

"Do I know you?" The girl asked, squinting at him.

The Doctor smiled wondrously. "Jackie Tyler," he said to himself. "Oh, no! Not yet!" He blurted out, slapping his hand across his mouth.

"Are you a mate of Tony's?" Jackie asked, putting her hands on her hips. "'Cause if you are, you tell that snivelling little creep that if I ever find him hanging by my back door again I'll have his-"

"No, no!" The Doctor replied, shaking his head furiously. "I just…thought you were someone else," he explained, laughing nervously. Behind him Rose stumbled out of the TARDIS, coughing as brick dust and smoke filled her throat. She scrambled up the side of the hole the blue box rested in and stepped out onto the rubble-filled road, seeing the Doctor staring at another woman in the distance.

"Doctor!" she cried out. "Doctor, these people need help!"

The Doctor's head snapped back towards her, standing silhouetted against the blazing wreckage. "I…I'd better…" he mumbled to Jackie, pointing to the disaster area.

"Yeah," she replied smartly. "You'd better."

With a backwards glance he strode over to his companion and took her by the arm, guiding her back towards the hole. "Get back in the TARDIS, Rose," he said weakly, his throat dry and parched.

"No," Rose replied, pulling her arm from the Doctor's grasp. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the Doctor snapped too quickly. "You'll just be safer inside." Rose shot him a rebellious

look. "Go!"

Throwing her arms down Rose clambered clumsily down into the hole and entered the TARDIS, slamming the door loudly to leave the Doctor standing in the midst of chaos as sirens began to wail. Taking one last look behind him to see a young Jackie Tyler being led back into the teeming pub, the Doctor sighed and leapt back down to enter the TARDIS.

"Don't trust me to look after myself anymore, do you?" Rose shot bitterly, standing at the top of the ramp with her arms crossed.

"I do," the Doctor sighed, running around the inner edge of the TARDIS to rifle through piles of odds and ends, mechanical gizmos and electronic spare parts. "It's just bad out there. Have you seen my huon oscillator?" He asked, kneeling to look beneath the smoking command console.

"And who was _that?_" Rose carried on. "An old girlfriend?"

"No!" The Doctor replied, yelling in pain as he banged his head on the console. "It's just," he said rubbing his head, "some woman."

"There is _never_," Rose replied, putting her hands on her hips, "such thing as just 'some woman' with you, Doctor."

The Doctor sighed, standing up straight and looking at Rose with a pained expression on his face. "If I tell you," he replied seriously, "you have to promise me not to go out there."

Rose looked at the Doctor uncertainly, her fingers playing at the hems of her sleeves. "I promise," she replied cautiously.

The Doctor looked down at the ground, collecting his thoughts before explaining, "That woman…that _girl_ out there…I don't know her name proper, but in a few years she will become Jacqueline Tyler."

Rose's eyes widened. Without hesitation or regard for her promise to the Doctor she ran down the ramp, reaching out for the door before the Doctor's hand clamped around her wrist. "That's my mother out there!" She cried, fighting the Doctor's grip. "We nearly killed her! I have to help her!"

"She's not your mother, Rose!" The Doctor cried out, grabbing his companion and forcing her arms to her sides. "Not yet! Right now she is a scared, emotional girl who could not handle some strange woman telling her she's her daughter!" Rose finally stopped struggling, her eyes burning deep into the Doctor's as he tried his best to calm her. "But the fact that we've run into her means something very, very bad has happened."

"What's happened?" Rose asked, struggling against the Doctor's grip once more.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, his voice softer and quieter as he tried to coax Rose away from the door. "I don't know where we are, or when, or why we're here, but Rose Tyler, I swear I will do everything I can to find all that out _and _make sure you and your mother are safe."

Rose relaxed in his arms, her body swaying backwards slightly as the tightness that had filled her for so long finally released itself. "I know you will," she replied softly, giving the Doctor a weak smile.

The Doctor nodded, letting go of Rose's arms and guiding her back to the command console where he got to his knees and pulled off a panel, flinching as blue sparks spat angrily at him. "Finding out when and where we are shouldn't be too hard," he muttered as he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and gave the circuit boards a once-over. "Probably just blown the anchor circuit, time loops always do that to them." The Doctor rummaged around in a culvert and picked out a few assorted microchip-like objects, running them over in his hands as he mumbled inaudibly to himself. "That's the one!" he cried brightly as he shoved a postage-stamp sized chip into the battered circuit board. The screen on the console came to life with a flicker.

"What's it say?" Rose asked, swivelling to and fro nervously on the Doctor's chair.

The Doctor put on his glasses and tapped the screen. "According to this we're in London-makes sense-and it is…1984," he announced proudly, straightening back up. "When was your mother born?" he asked Rose.

"1967," Rose replied. "So she'd be-"

"Seventeen," the Doctor interrupted, his head turning to the door slowly. "Seventeen and sneaking into a pub? That definitely sounds like your mother."

Rose turned to look at the door sadly. "Is she going to be okay?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah," the Doctor replied slowly. "She'll be fine."

***

Three miles from the now-wrecked Pilgrim & Flower pub, a vagrant rummaged meticulously through the contents of a battered dumpster. He grunted and chuckled to himself as he picked out a few half-eaten sandwiches and ball-point pens, shoving a crust of bread in his mouth as he pocketed an empty tin can. The streets were bare for miles around; on a Saturday night, anyone who was anyone was down at the pubs and clubs nearer the City. On nights like this, he was king.

The wind picked up and blew away the half a pickled egg the tramp held delicately between his fingers, cursing and swearing as he chased the scrap down. Deeper and deeper into the alley he went until a flash of blue light stopped him in his tracks. A ball of light, suspended in mid-air, grew and grew until it collapsed in on itself with an explosion that sent the old man flying backwards amid a torrent of garbage.

Slowly he came to his senses and picked himself up, dusting himself off as he became aware of another presence in the alley. "Clear off!" He shouted in a husky, tobacco-ravaged voice. "This is my spot here! Go find your own!"

A tall, imposing figure stepped forward, obscured by shadows. _London_, it stated, _nineteen-eighty-four_, in an odd, flanged voice.

"Yeah, that's right," the old tramp replied, "you must've been the brains of the family. Now git!"

_Jacqueline Prentice_, the voice barked harshly. The tramp stood silent for a moment, confused. _Jacqueline Prentice_.

"Do I look like my name is Jackalin?" He croaked, sauntering forward. The figure turned and walked out of the alleyway, the merest whisper of gears and motors emanating from it. The tramp sniffed as he watched it walk down the road and disappear.

"Bloody foreigners."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to all my readers for the overwhelmingly positive response this story has gotten already, and of course thanks as usual to my wonderful Beta Clare, constantly plugging up the gaps in my leaking brain. Gallifrey Rises!**

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"One thing's for sure," the Doctor said as he stumbled to his feet, wiping his grubby hands on his trousers, "we can't stay here."

Rose looked up from her seat, picking nervously at her nails. "You mean we're going outside?" She asked, half-hopefully.

"No," the Doctor replied, poring over a fried circuit. "Well, not yet, at least. We just caused an explosion in the middle of London at the height of Thatcher's government; I can assure you that outside right now there's police poring over this box like flies around the proverbial."

"How are we going to get them away?" Rose asked, standing and crossing to the Doctor's side.

"Oh, that's never going to happen," the Doctor sighed, running the screwdriver slowly along a pipe and bashing it vigorously with a spanner. "They're human…once you lot get an idea into your heads you just don't let it go. They're not going anywhere," he assured her, turning a crank on the console as he pressed an assortment of buttons.

"Then what do we _do?_" Rose demanded, frustrated.

The Doctor pulled down the lever and the pipes above them whirred into action, humming and throbbing with the familiar sound of the TARDIS in flight. "This," he replied triumphantly, beaming as the screen flickered into life, showing a dozen uniformed policemen scrambling out of the hole as the box they'd been scrutinising for some time started to fade and disappear. Rose scoffed, regarding the Doctor with an impressed gaze.

"Doesn't it ever get boring," she asked facetiously, "being right all the time?"

"Never," the Doctor replied with a smile. "Absolutely never."

The whole TARDIS shook again, as if it were encountering turbulence. "Bloody thing," the Doctor grunted, holding onto the console and pressing at buttons madly, "I knew I should have changed those temporal dampeners when I had the chance!"

Rose wobbled on her feet, shouting out over the sound of grinding metal, "What's happening?"

"The time matrix is still in flux from our little collision," the Doctor yelled back, hopping around the console as he tried to steady the TARDIS. "It's gonna be a bit of a rougher ride than we're used to, I'm afraid!"

"Oh yeah, because this thing's usually the last word in comfort!" Rose retorted sarcastically, falling back into the chair as the TARDIS finally came to a halt with a great hissing of steam from a vent. The Doctor panted and slowly loosened his grip as the room stopped shaking and the console felt silent and still.

"Well," he said brightly as he straightened up, "that's that. Now, let's see if I can work out what the hell just happened to us back there," he continued as he paced around the console, pulling a tube from the console with an earpiece attached to it, cupping it to his ear and twiddling with knobs like a radio operator.

"What's that you're doing?" Rose asked, lifting herself out of the chair and crossing to the Doctor's side.

"Listening for a call sign," the Doctor muttered, deep in concentration. "Our collision was a major event, the sound of it will reverberate around the universe and the time vortex for a while yet; think Krakatoa," he explained, arbitrarily flicking a switch.

"Kraka-what?" Rose asked, leaning in further to try and hear what the Doctor was listening to.

"Just a little island off Indonesia I once visited," the Doctor replied. "Not too long before I met you, actually."

"Nice place?"

"Used to be. Aha!" The Doctor cried, almost leaping in excitement as he pressed the earpiece tighter to his head, listening intently. "There it is! I just need to amplify it," he exclaimed, running the sonic screwdriver over a spinning dial.

"It couldn't be one of Jack's lot, could it?" Rose asked, touching the Doctor's shoulder gently. "One of those Time Agents."

"Oh, no," the Doctor replied flippantly, "One human, travelling through space-time protected by nothing but a zero-point reality shield? They'd have gone like a fly on a windshield if they'd hit this. Whatever this thing is, it's big…big and nasty. Almost there now," he muttered, squinting slowly and shutting his eyes completely as he honed in on the grinding, repeating sound. "There you are…" The Doctor's eyes snapped open and he took in a sharp breath. His hearts fluttered and he leapt to his feet, his jaw slowly dropping. "No," he babbled out loud, "no, it's not possible…"

"Doctor?" Rose asked, worried. "Doctor, what is it?"

"It's not possible," he repeated, throwing the earpiece down and ripping the tube out of the console, jamming the sonic screwdriver into the socket it left behind and turning it up to full. The TARDIS was filled with an ear-crunching metallic scraping which left Rose covering her ears in pain.

"What the hell's _that?_" She asked, wincing as the noise grew almost unbearably loud.

"It's a Peacemaker," The Doctor replied as he pulled the screwdriver from the socket and the noise steadily lessened. "A mechanical assassin with an in-built Vortex Manipulator. Armies would use them to assassinate enemy leaders before wars ever started. They caused absolute chaos with the time matrix; the Time Lords destroyed them all in the end," he explained. "At least, they thought they had."

"And it's come back to Earth? To London, in 1984? Why?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Bump off a political leader, tip the Cold War into a fully-blown nuclear holocaust; any reason. But whatever it is, we've got to stop it," he asserted, picking up his coat from the back of the chair and striding to the door of the TARDIS with Rose by his side, throwing it open and almost falling backwards as the world outside came into view.

_You're out of touch, I'm out of time, but I'm out of my head when you're not around…_

Music blared deafeningly around a cramped, dimly-lit space. Strobe lights went off and dry ice poured out over the floor as the Doctor and Rose stepped gingerly out of the TARDIS, the revellers seemingly oblivious to the fact the blue box was even there. Young women in skimpy dresses mingled with boys in earrings and leather, both sexes caked in make-up.

"Where the hell are we?" Rose yelled over the volume of the music.

"Well, it's been a while since I was last in one, but I'd say it's a club!" The Doctor replied, hugging the wall as a gentleman in a dress sauntered past. "You know, all civilisations have eras where everything goes a bit funny, taste-wise; this lot could write the book on them!"

Rose drank in the sights and the atmosphere. "What you talking about, the 80's were fantastic! The music, the hairstyles, the fashion; my mate Shireen, right, had an 80's party for her eighteenth, and it was mad!" The Doctor rolled his eyes, bringing Rose back to the matter at hand. "Why'd you send us to a club though?" Rose asked as she clung to the Doctor's side, curling her lip in distaste as a bearded, mullet-sporting man looked her up and down.

"I didn't mean to," the Doctor grumbled, "I _meant_ to put us in a nice, empty alleyway. Obviously the time matrix is still feeling a bit particular and it's put us ten feet to the left!"

"Well, let's just get out of here," Rose barked, slapping a wandering hand away. "I don't care how thick London doormen are, I can't see a robot getting past one of them."

"Good idea," the Doctor replied, grimacing as he began to push his way past sweaty, barely-clad bodies.

***

"Oh, I love this song!" One of the women exclaimed as the trio made their way to the bar. "Wanna go dance, Jacks?"

"Yeah," Jackie replied half-heartedly. "I just wanna get a drink first."

"We'll be in the corner!" her friend shouted over the noise as she and the other girl disappeared into a throng of people.

Jackie sat at the bar, unable to get that strange man's face out of her mind. A few tactical gin and tonics had settled her nerves over the explosion, but after all that it was that man she couldn't forget; his body, his eyes - there was something intensely strange, almost alien, about him, and yet she felt as if she knew him intimately.

The barman brought a multi-coloured cocktail over to where Jackie was sitting and she took a tentative sip, licking her lips as it dripped off her straw. People hummed and billowed around her, giving her a wide berth; the lone sad act by herself, probably ditched by her friends or just desperate for something. If she was honest, Jackie appreciated the solitude.

And then the voice came from behind her. _Jacqueline Prentice? _

"Not now," she sighed, taking another sip of her cocktail.

_Jacqueline Prentice?_

"I said, not bloody now!" she replied angrily, pulling a pack of Marlboro Reds from her purse.

_Jacqueline Prentice?_

Jackie turned on her bar stool. "Yes! Yes, that's me! Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Prentice! Now what the bloody hell do you-?" She froze as she first caught sight of the thing. It seemed to be wrapped in a blanket or sheet, but what little Jackie could make out was barely human. Hard and lustrous like metal, its skin glinted under the light from the disco ball. Yellow eyes glowed like streetlights in the darkness of its hood and Jackie's cocktail fell to the floor and smashed as it raised a cannon-like arm towards her.

_Exterminate._


	4. Chapter 4

**Many, many apologies for the late upload; it's taken more than a few kicks up the arse to get myself back into writing mode. Thanks go to my watchful Beta Clare and my devoted readers SanguineInk and Son of Whitebeard. Gallifrey Rises!**

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"Excuse me - sorry, pardon me - thank you, sorry - excuse me, Sir-oh, Madam, sorry -"

The Doctor and Rose sidled their way slowly through the pulsating throng of revellers as they tried to get out of the club. He winced as an overpowering vapour of hairspray stung his face, blinking it out of his eyes.

"Don't light a match," the Doctor warned Rose, "I'm telling you, this place is an accident waiting to happen!"

"You really don't like crowds, do you?" Rose shot back as she narrowly avoided getting a rum and Coke down her sweatshirt.

"Where there's crowds, there's people," The Doctor replied, turning to face Rose and stepping backwards slowly. "And people are-"

The Doctor stumbled as he bumped into a hulking figure, seemingly swaddled in cloth, sending it off it's balance. A beam of light shot out of its left arm and an explosion rocked the club, sending shards of glass spraying everywhere as the party-goers screamed, ducking and covering as chaos quickly took hold. An entire wall was on fire, and the floor was quickly following suit as the shattered optics leaked their contents out over the inferno. Smoke began to fill the space almost instantly and the panic turned into a stampede as fire alarms started to ring out.

"-Stupid," the Doctor mumbled, looking around at the carnage with complete bafflement. Whatever he'd bumped into was on the floor, having taken the full force of the explosion. Almost every inch of it was covered in a dark, leather-like fabric wrapped tightly around its body, except for two shining, metallic legs poking out of the bottom. The Doctor's hearts skipped.

Rose got up from the floor, coughing and cradling one arm. "Doctor," she croaked, "is that-"

"Yes," the Doctor replied, backing away and helping Rose to her feet, "it is." The Doctor watched as the clubbers filed their ways swiftly out of emergency exits and switched his gaze back down to the prostrate Peacemaker before making a decision. "Back to the TARDIS. Even now, that thing's more dangerous than you could imagine."

Rose turned and limped away as the Doctor helped her across the dusty, glass-filled dance floor. But from above the crackling of wood and the blaring of bells came a desperate cry: "Help! Help!"The Doctor turned and gasped to see a young Jackie Tyler crouched against the burning bar, coughing and backing away from the downed robot. Reaching out his hand the Doctor called out to her.

"Come here!" he cried, stretching his arm out to reach her. "Come to me!" Jackie shook her head furiously, scrunching her eyes shut and sobbing. "Come with me if you want to live!"

Another bang from behind the bar elicited a scream from Jackie and she began to scramble across the floor to where the Doctor was waiting. Scooping her up in his free arm he guided mother and daughter into the TARDIS and slammed the door shut just as the ceiling began to cave.

The three of them fell heavily backwards and slid to the floor, panting as they caught their breath. "Why's everything blowing up so much lately?" Rose mumbled as her cheek pressed into the Doctor's shoulder, her hot breath whispering past his lips.

"I'm just having one of those days," The Doctor replied. "It's either running or stuff blowing up, I can't help it."

A deafening shriek sent Rose and the Doctor scrambling to their feet as they covered their ears. "Where am I? What happened? Who are you?"

"Jackie," the Doctor replied, stretching his hands out towards her, "it's okay. You're safe. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose Ty…just Rose," he backtracked, realising the massive paradox he was already flirting with.

"Why have you been following me?" She screeched, backing away across the floor.

"We're not," The Doctor retorted, shaking his head, "we're not!"

"You are!" Jackie shouted back, stumbling to her feet and tottering backwards as her stiletto heels disappeared down the gaps in the grille. "You blew up that Italian place by the Pilgrim and now you're sending…_things_ to kill me!"

"_That _was an accident, and, and, and what did you say?" The Doctor muttered, utterly running out of steam as Jackie's words sent him into a whole new train of thought.

"That thing that blew up half the club just now, it asked me my name and I said yes," Jackie explained, holding onto a rail to steady her wobbling legs. "It pointed its arm at me and it was going

to-to-"

"It asked you your name?" The Doctor repeated, advancing on Jackie as she backed into the wall. "Are you _absolutely _sure?"

"Three times," Jackie replied, her eyes swimming as she stared up at the Doctor's looming figure. Silence reigned but for the steady hum of the TARDIS' heart, broken by a mighty crash against the door that sent everyone tumbling.

"The Peacemaker's back up!" The Doctor cried out over the tumult. "Time for us to go!" Scrambling to the central console he threw the switch that send the TARDIS flying through space and held on as they were subjected to yet another bumpy, uncomfortable flight. Jackie squealed and held onto the rail her feet fell from under her, her heels totally unsuited for keeping her upright.

"Where are we?" She screamed, hooking her arms over the metal bar as the sanctum shook violently.

"Everywhere!" The Doctor replied as the TARDIS landed with a crash. "Technically."

"I mean," Jackie said, pulling off her heels and standing up straight, "where a_re _we? What's this thing you've put me in?" She asked, curling her toes as the metal grille bit into the soles of her feet.

"Ah," The Doctor replied, "This is the TARDIS. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. I am an alien, a Time Lord - the best kind of alien you could ask for, really - and this," he explained, waving his arm about, "is my spaceship. Tea?"

Jackie stared open-mouthed at the Doctor momentarily before whispering to Rose, "Has he been taking something, or have I?"

Rose's mouth opened and closed dumbly before the Doctor stepped forward and put his arm around Jackie's shoulders tightly, guiding her pointedly away from Rose. "No, no, I assure you, everything you see is real. That thing you saw tonight's called a Peacemaker, it's a time-travelling robot from the future and it's very dangerous. And if what you're telling me is true, then it's here for you."

"Get out of it!" Jackie replied with a snort of laughter, wriggling from the Doctor's grasp. "You're having a laugh, aren't you? Who's put you up to this?" She turned to Rose. "He's joking, isn't he?" Rose shook her head dumbly. "Oh, right then!" Jackie exclaimed. "So I suppose you lot are from the future an' all!"

The Doctor took a sharp inward breath. "Well…"

Jackie scoffed and shook her head, "Oh, you're mad, you are!"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, you've called me worse," he mumbled under his breath before continuing, "Please, try to understand, Jackie, and I know it's going to be hard but you're going to have to trust me. There's just so much I - _we_ can't tell you."

"What's it want?" Rose spoke up for the first time in a while. "Why's it after her?"

"The Peacemaker's here because you're going to do something great," he explained, glancing momentarily over to Rose. "Something spectacular."

"What?" Jackie inquired, her eyes wide. "What am I going to do?"

The Doctor's head snapped back and he cursed himself for letting slip more than he should have. "I really can't tell you, I'm sorry. If I tell you I could jeopardise the entire time matrix, but please, Jackie-" he pleaded, placing a hand on her cheek, "-you have _got _to trust me."

Jackie looked into his eyes and felt as though she was seeing someone she knew somehow, like a face from a dream she couldn't quite place, and the Doctor recognised an expression in her he had so often seen in Rose; her relenting and trusting in him.

"Good," The Doctor replied softly. "Right, well, the safest place for you right now - for all of us, really, is right here in the TARDIS. As powerful as a Peacemaker is, the chances of _anything _coming through that door are about one in-"

A crash and the splintering of wood exploded around the TARDIS, causing Rose to leap with fright and Jackie to jump into the Doctor's arms, her arms wrapped around his neck. As they all turned towards the front they saw the front end of a dull blue Ford Cortina poking through the shattered lower half of the TARDIS door.

"-One," The Doctor finished, crestfallen. "At least, they are when I forget to put the shields up," he groaned, turning to see Jackie's terrified face gazing up at him, their lips frighteningly close. Knowing without looking that Rose was glaring furiously he politely unwrapped Jackie's arms from his neck and set her down on the grille. "I'd better go exchange insurance details," he muttered, smiling and avoiding Rose's gaze as he passed her on the ramp.

Steam poured from the car's battered bonnet and a headlight fell limply out of its socket. "Bit of a prang, mate," the Doctor called out as he pushed open what remained of the doors. "Sorry about that, I'm the Doctor. Who might you be, squire?"

A young man stumbled out of the car, wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of entirely-too-tight jeans. "Me?" he repeated dumbly, looking over his wrecked car in shock. "Pete," he mumbled, "Peter Tyler."

"…Oh, come on."


	5. Chapter 5

**Many thanks go to Clare for Rose's dialogue and a few delectable pop culture references. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Doctor?" Rose called from inside the TARDIS. "Doctor, is everything alright out there?"

"Yeah," the Doctor replied slowly, watching as a young Pete Tyler ran his hands over the crumpled bonnet of his Ford Cortina. "It's about as normal as things get for us."

"What-" Pete began, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he struggled to get his head around what had just happened. "Who…how…"

"Look, mate," The Doctor cut in, sliding over the bonnet to stand next to Pete and curling an arm around his shoulder paternally, "You know what this looks like, and I know what this looks like, and I don't think the police are going to look too kindly on young Peter Tyler telling them the front end of his car's a write-off because he crashed into a police box that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road," he muttered confidentially, craning his neck back to make sure Rose and Jackie were safely inside. "So what say you toddle off home and leave this to me, eh?"

Pete looked up to the Doctor's grinning face and managed only a befuddled murmur before a screeching voice cut across the still of the midnight street. "You bloody idiot!"

Their heads snapped back to the TARDIS doors to find Jackie clambering inelegantly over the Cortina's bonnet. The Doctor groaned as Jackie stormed towards the two of them, poking Pete in the chest. "You got eyes?" she demanded, standing with her hands on her hips as The Doctor let go of Pete's shoulder and wandered back to the TARDIS with his head in his hands. "Or are you just thick, is that it?"

"It-" Pete burbled, pointing limply to the blue box, "it came out of nowhere…"

"It's a bloody spaceship, you idiot!" Jackie screeched back, hopping with frustration. "Just look at the size-"

She turned and saw the TARDIS' exterior for the first time. All her rage dissipated as the impossibly small box loomed before her. Silently she wandered over to the doors and walked around the side, her hand brushing the varnished wood lightly as she walked full circle around it.

"That's impossible," she muttered, looking up at its softly blinking light. "Impossible."

"Alien," The Doctor muttered, his eyes pointedly staring at the tarmac. "Spaceship. No such word as impossible."

Pete shook his head. "Sorry, spaceship?" He asked incredulously.

"Which you just wrecked!" Jackie shouted at him, running her hands along the cracks in the wood as if to soothe them.

"It just _appeared!_" Pete argued back, and the two became involved in a heated argument which only grew in volume and tenacity as the Doctor made his way back into the TARDIS and sank to the floor, crossing his legs and rubbing his temples, breathing hard.

"Doctor?" Rose whispered as her parents' younger selves bickered and quarrelled outside. She sank down to the floor beside him. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, time travel sickness. Never really leaves you. More to the point, Rose, how do _you_ feel?" He asked, studying her eyes for a second before scanning her face with the sonic screwdriver. Rose blinked away from the bright blue light.

"Alright, I suppose, given that my mum's currently younger than me and giving that poor bloke outside an earful-can you not?!" She protested, batting the sonic screwdriver away from her face, causing the Doctor to pocket it.

"Any dizziness? Sickness? Feeling light-headed?" He popped his glasses on the end of his nose. "Weak pulse? General…ickiness?"

"Is that a medical term?" Rose scoffed. When the Doctor didn't smile she replied softly, "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Then I've been very lucky," the Doctor mumbled, pocketing his glasses and sighing loudly. "Everything that's happened so far was meant to happen, or at the very least was within the time matrix's margin for error…does raise a few worrying questions, though…"

"Margin for error? What's that mean?" Rose asked. The Doctor opened his mouth to reply but an ear-piercing screech prevented him, and as they both clambered to their feet they watched as Jackie climbed back over the car bonnet before turning and pointing a shaking finger out of the door. "I am _not _on drugs, you little creep!"

A young man who Rose had never met before but instantly recognised leaned over the bonnet and cried, "Could have fooled me, love!"

Rose stood stunned, her eyes wandering over the young man's smooth face and bouffant hairdo and recognising him, unmistakably, as her father. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by a loud whistle from the Doctor, rushing over and breaking her parents apart just as Jackie lunged forward.

"That's quite enough of that, children!" He exclaimed, putting his hands behind his back and standing to attention. "What I'd really like from each of you is for Jackie to go back inside and for Pete to back his car out of my spaceship, if he'd be so kind." Reluctantly Jackie clambered back into the TARDIS and Pete got back in his car, starting the engine with a whining splutter and backing it out of the doors with a crunch and splintering of wood. Jackie leant back against the railings in an effort to compose herself and Rose rushed to the Doctor's side to watch as Pete parked up his ruined car and get out.

"Now, Rose, listen to me," The Doctor began hurriedly Pete approached, turning her toward himself. "You can't say anything to them, not a word-"

"I know!" Rose interrupted, but the Doctor continued sternly.

"Every time we come across you father in the past or a parallel universe you act impulsively and I understand why, but you can't…not this time.."

"Because of the Peacemaker?" Rose asked with more perception than he'd have given her credit for.

"Exactly. Whoever sent it had no idea of knowing we'd be here. And I haven't quite worked out what's going on yet but what I do know is that the safest place for your parents right now is right here in the TARDIS with us. But please, Rose, do _not _tell them who we are." Rose nodded forlornly.

"Won't you come in, Pete?" The Doctor called. Rose gripped his arm. "Relax," the Doctor reassured her, looking to Rose's fearful eyes. "You're still here and I'm alive, so nothing's gone too wrong with the timeline just yet."

"Come in?" Pete asked, eyeing up the TARDIS suspiciously. "Are you some kind of nutter? That's a police box, you'd be hard-pressed to fit all four of us in and close the door!"

"Nah," the Doctor said, opening the remaining top halves of the doors and stepping inside with Rose. "Now you've taken care of the bottom half, there'll be loads of room for us all!"

Pete sighed and stepped inside the TARDIS, his face dropping into a stunned gasp as he looked around the huge inner sanctum. Stepping backwards outside and turning his head to check out either side of the exterior, he headed back in and walked up the ramp, shaking his head. "No way," he exclaimed, "this is one of them hall of mirrors or something, ain't it?"

"Now who's on drugs?" Jackie shouted bitingly.

Pete ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head more. "I can't handle this."

"Oh, come on," the Doctor chastised him, taking him by the arm and leading him to the central console. "Boy racer like you, I thought you'd love to have a look at a real-live spaceship! The DeLorean of its class!" He cast his arm over the control panel and rattled off a few descriptions. "Chameleon array, anchor switch, temporal compensators, paradox inhibitor and flux capacitor."

"Flux capacitor?" Pete repeated, bug-eyed.

"It's what makes time travel possible," the Doctor replied seriously, giving Rose a furtive wink.

Rose giggled as the Doctor's gaze fell upon her. "So the movies do get it right sometimes, do they?"

"'Course they do," the Doctor replied flippantly. "Half of Hollywood are aliens, after all."

"Really?" Rose blurted out, moving closer to the Doctor and muttering conspiratorially, "Which ones?"

The Doctor hummed and hawed. "Oh, you know him…short, bad teeth, _Show me the money!_…"

"I _knew _it!" Rose exclaimed triumphantly, clapping as the Doctor beamed and jumped on the spot with her. "The Scientology lot, right?"

"…No, just him, actually. Weird, isn't it?"

"Oi!" A brassy, screeching voice echoed around the sanctum. "Are we going somewhere or what?"

"Yes, of course we are," The Doctor replied, striding back to the main console and gingerly shoving Pete aside to arbitrarily press some buttons. "Oh, by the way, I don't think you two have been properly introduced yet. Jackie Prentice, Pete Tyler. Pete Tyler," he leaned in to Pete and lowered his voice suggestively, "Jackie Prentice."

"Nice to meet you," Pete offered with a polite smile.

"Whatever."

The Doctor sighed, pulling down a lever and watching as the TARDIS doors re-formed themselves, solid wood seeming to grow out its own shattered remnants like a lizard's missing leg, blocking out the outside world once more. "Course of true love, and all that," he muttered to himself as he raised the shields and pulled the lever to send them elsewhere. "Allons-y!"


End file.
